Azriel Clary Now: Where Is R. Kelly’s Accuser Today?

azriel clary now

Instagram (Azriel Clary)/Getty Azriel Clary now.

Azriel Clary is a musical artist who has released a new single after accusing singer R. Kelly of sexual abuse.

In May 2022, Clary told Revolt that she was trying to move forward with a music career after the R. Kelly case.

She released an R&B single “Inside Me” on May 27, 2022, during Mental Health Awareness Month, according to Revolt, which reported that she is in therapy. “I feel like aside from music, [sessions were] able to help me break down a lot of barriers,” Clary told Revolt.

She told Revolt:

Music has really helped me. It was one of the biggest tools that helped me find myself again. It was about going back to the basics, remembering who I was, [and] relearning myself. Music was the thing that helped me when I was very depressed and at my lows. It was the only thing that I felt comfortable [doing]. That made me feel like I was in a safe haven.

Kelly is today in prison in Illinois, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Clary is on television screens due to the final installment of the Lifetime series “Surviving R. Kelly,” a two-day event that began January 2, 2023, at 9/8c, according to Lifetime.

Here’s what you need to know:


Clary Said in 2022 That She Made ‘Careless Decisions’ But Was Manipulated

According to In Touch Weekly. Clary initially defended Kelly before testifying against him, In Touch reports that Kelly met her when she was 17 and he pulled her on stage.

Clary gave an interview in 2022 that you can watch on YouTube. “Sitting down with Jason Lee, Azriel Clary, one of the young women who’s survived R. Kelly, talks about her life before meeting the disgraced R&B legend and what it took to leave him,” the caption reads. It says:

Opening the interview, Azriel reflects on her simple childhood and supportive parents. She then talks about meeting R. Kelly, losing contact with her family and reflecting on the events that transpired under his control. Azriel’s Gayle King interviews are discussed and she opens up about what her breakthrough looked like and how she sought therapy and matured since leaving the singer. By the end of the interview, Azriel shares details on her new single ‘Sounds of an Angel,’ and teases her upcoming project due in May 2022.

In the interview, she said, “what am I doing if I’m not doing music?” She said that it’s easy to “manipulate someone,” and Clary said she was “naive,” according to her interview with Lee.

She told Lee it was “super important to know that I didn’t need anybody to do what I’m doing now.”

Clary told Lee that she still receives backlash from people who are R. Kelly fans. “I just feel it’s a lot of naive people who fell in love with someone’s artistry and their music,” she told him. She said right is right and wrong is wrong, however, according to the interview.

She said she made a lot of very “careless decisions,” and she was very young and naive, and she has taken accountability for that, according to the interview. She said she has learned about gaslighting and love bombing, it adds. “It was definitely a lot of that, just keeping people there,” she said to Lee, adding that the first sign of control came when she turned 18.

She has given other interviews over the years, including with CBS Mornings. Clary is on Instagram; the profile features some of her recent music.


Kelly Was Sentenced to Decades in Prison

r. kelly

GettySinger R. Kelly appears during a hearing at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse on September 17, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois.

In September 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice released a press release, saying that a federal jury in Chicago “convicted recording artist ROBERT SYLVESTER KELLY, also known as ‘R. Kelly,’ on child pornography and exploitation charges.”

“Evidence at the four-week trial in U.S. District Court in Chicago revealed that Kelly enticed multiple girls to engage in sexual activity and recorded some of the abuse on videotape,” the release says. “Kelly met the victims in the late 1990s and engaged in sex acts with them while they were under the age of eighteen.”

Kelly “was convicted on three counts of producing child pornography and three counts of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity,” the release continues.

He has not yet been sentenced in that case, the release says.

Kelly was already sentenced to 30 years in prison in an earlier case, according to a press release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On Sept. 27, 2021, “following six weeks of trial, a federal jury in Brooklyn convicted Kelly of all nine counts of a superseding indictment charging him with racketeering predicated on criminal conduct including sexual exploitation of children, forced labor and Mann Act violations involving the coercion and transportation of women and girls in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sexual activity,” the release says.

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